Car and home insurance and energy add extra £200 onto our bills

Annual household bills were on average nearly £200 more expensive last year driven by surging car insurance and energy costs, new figures reveal.

The total average cost for car cover, energy and homeinsurance was altogether £2,216.02, a rise of 9.7 per cent on the previous year.

The biggest bill increase was in car insurance which shot up by £96.79 in a year, and £146.15 since 2014, largely due to rises in insurance premium tax by the Government.

Rising costs: Household bills increased by almost £200 on average between 2015 and 2016

Energy bills increased by 7.3 per cent between 2015 and 2016, adding an extra £94.23 onto the average annual bill, the research from comparison site ComparetheMarket has shown.

Between 2014 and 2016, energy bills as a whole actually fell on average by eight per cent, or £130.68, due to a prolonged period of low wholesale costs.

But prices started to nudge higher in the last six months of 2016 and are expected to rise further this year to reflect increasing wholesale prices.

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Regionally, those in the North West paid the most for energy bills last year, according to the data, with average costs of £1,467.39 while those in the East Midlands had the cheapest average bills of £1,295.65.

Several smaller energy providers have already announced price rises to reflect higher wholesale prices, such as Ovo, while GB Energy collapsed shortly before Christmas because it couldn't cope with rising prices.

Three of the Big Six energy firms have committed to freezing prices until the spring, experts have predicted that costs will rise soon after then.

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The biggest rise to households bills was car insurance last year and this is due to the two rises to insurance premium tax during the past two years.

On 1 November 2015 it was increased from 6 to 9.5 per cent and on 1 October 2016 it went up again to 10 per cent. It was confirmed in the Autumn Statement that it would rise again on 1 June 2017, to 12 per cent.

The research also revealed big differences in the average cost of car insurance across the UK in 2016.

The most expensive average premiums were in Greater London, with average bills of £1,103.60, while the cheapest were in Scotland at £514.18.

The cost of car insurance is up 146.14 since 2014 largely because of insurance premium tax

The price of home insurance has remained largely stable, at an average of £140.85 in 2016. This is just £3.70 more expensive than the costs in 2015 and £5.12 cheaper than in 2014.

The highest overall cost for home, car insurance and energy bills was in Greater London with average bills of £2,615.64 for 2016.

It was followed by households in the North West, paying an average of £2,403.06 and those in the West Midlands with average bills of £2,318.89.

Those in Scotland paid the cheapest average bills, paying out £2,012.61 in 2016, followed by those in the South West, paying £2,051.55 and households in the East Midlands with average bills of £2,072.54.

Geographically prices rose at the fastest rate between 2015 and 2016 in the South West, rising by 13.58 per cent to an average of £2,051.55.

Those in the East Midlands saw the slowest rise, of 4.21 per cent to an average of £2,072.54.